


The Waiting Room

by rowan_elizabeth



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 12:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18828379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowan_elizabeth/pseuds/rowan_elizabeth
Summary: Tony wakes up in the compound-- except it's not the compound.Loosely inspired by the ending of "Lost" although you don't need to have seen it to understand it.





	The Waiting Room

Tony wakes up slowly. It reminds him too much of his twenties and waking up with a blaring hangover, whole body aching, head pounding. He grunts and squeezes his eyes shut, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He blinks for a second but decides quickly that it’s better to keep his eyes closed against the blazing sun. They need new blinds, he’d ask FRIDAY to pull up some possible choices later that would match the duvet. He rolls over and reaches out for Pepper but finds nothing. The other side of his bed is empty and cold.

He sits up, then and looks around. He isn’t at home, he’s in the compound. He goes to the open window and looks out. Everything is a blinding white and it seems to stretch on forever. He shakes his head, trying to clear the fuzziness, trying to recall what the hell had happened to him. He turns around and staggers out of his room.

“Pepper? Morgan?” he hollers down the halls. His echo answers him. He stumbles into a wall and stops, panting. “FRIDAY, locate Pepper.” Nothing. “FRIDAY, locate Morgan!” Again, no response. He looks down at his chest to see what the hell was wrong with FRIDAY and finds that the arc-reactor is gone. He rolls up his favorite ‘Black Sabbath’ t-shirt and finds that all his scars and bruises are gone. His skin looks youthful, taught and lean. This isn't the body he remembers.

“Tony?” He whips around, his hands, on instinct, coming up to a defensive position.

She looks peaceful. The grief and pain accumulated over the years wiped from her features. She’s dressed in that ratty, old hoodie she used to wear when they weren’t on missions. She looks as she did the last time he saw her but something about her is different now. In her hands, she cradles an ornate ceramic mug. She smiles at him softly and walks towards him. She looks real, well somewhere between angelic and real. As she gets closer, Tony can smell a faint waft of coffee and shampoo.

“Nat? What’s going on? Are you real? Where are we?”

“Come on, Tony,” she says quietly, looping her arm though his. So, she is real, he thinks, and that means…

“I died?” It was a question, but he knows it’s true as soon as he says it. Sudden memories come flooding back to him. The battlefield, the gauntlet. Thanos. Snapping his fingers. Then Pepper and Rhodey were there and Peter… God, Peter… He remembers the excruciating pain, the ringing in his ears. He closes his eyes and lets out a dry sob.

“It’s okay, we’re safe now. You can rest.” Pepper had said. The wave of immense relief that washed over him as he let go for the first time since he put on the suit. And then…

“I’m sorry,” Nat said quietly. “I’m so sorry, Tony.” He opens his eyes and blinks away tears. She leads him down the halls to the living room and sits him on the couch. “It’s okay, it’s all okay,” Nat whispered, and he nodded sighing deeply.

“Where are we?”

Nat and Vision call it the waiting room. Vision, being the all-knowing entity that he is, just kind of knew when he showed up. Nat says after the initial shock wore off, the longer she was there, the more she knew and understood. It was scary at first, but somehow, she just knew that it was okay. It was like suddenly; her soul was at peace and everything was okay again.

“That’s what this place does,” Vision says. “It gives you closure. Helps you move forwards.”

They are waiting for the rest of their people. This is where their people will meet up before moving on to… Whatever comes next. Like a check in, a final hurrah, a sendoff. The people that will come here, The Avengers, were the most important people in their lives, their family, the waiting room was for them. 

“It won’t take long,” Vision says, “Time moves differently here.” Nat had only been here for a few hours if she had to guess; Vision, a couple days. They sit for a while as Tony takes it all in and just as Nat said, the longer he sits, the more he just comes to know, accept and understand. 

“Hello?” Comes a loud familiar voice, “Anybody?” Steve comes stumbling down the stairs, catching himself just barely on the railing. Nat moves swiftly to help him sit.

“Hey there, Cap,” Tony says feeling a rush of affection for his old friend, something he had been hard-pressed to feel when he was alive. He looks, well, he looks like Cap, same impeccable figure and face as always. “Welcome home.”

Steve takes the news well. Better than Tony and Nat and Tony can’t resist making a crack about Cap being a show off. Passing, he says, is probably easier when you’re old and tired especially for him since Peggy was already gone. He tells them about his marriage and his life, how they grew old together. He tells them about how he left Sam the shield and finally was able to retire. 

At some point Bruce shows up, then Clint. Wanda, Scott and Rhodey appear eventually too. Bucky wanders in with Sam, late to the party as usual and Stephen Strange follows in his mystical grace soon after. Pepper shows up and Tony about falls out of his bar stool trying to get to her. They hold each other and cry for a long while. Pepper tells Tony all about Morgan, how much she looks like him, how smart and kind she is. There’s laughter and joy and Tony holds onto every word Pepper says. T’Challa, Hope and a few others are missing (“they have their own waiting place with their own people. We will be able to see them once we move on,” Vision clarifies. Or, like Thor, they’re immortal.) but everyone here is happy and healthy and unburdened. It’s good and for the first time in a long time, Tony feels almost whole—but something is missing.

“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!” He turns from his conversation with Strange and his heart leaps. Coming down the stairs is Peter, he’s older that Tony remembers but not much. Like the rest of them he’s be returned to his prime. They collide, arms thrown around each other and Tony feels himself hovering between laughter and sobbing. He pulls away, taking Peter’s face in his hands. His features are more defined, but the boyish smile he loves so dearly is ever present and the same Peter is still there behind his eyes.

“Peter…”

“Mr. Stark, this is crazy! I was like lying in my hospital bed, right? Like I was so old! And then all the sudden, I woke up and I’m young and I’m here and—oh wow! —everyone is here! This is so cool! My back feels awesome! Is this like, Heaven or something? Or the afterlife? Is Aunt May here? Why does Heaven look like the compound?” He gushes, his eyes bouncing all around, Tony still holds tightly to his face.

“I missed you so much, Pete,” he says, his voice shaking embarrassingly so.

“I… I missed you too, Mr. Stark—” 

“Call me Tony.”

“—Tony. I missed you every day. I tell my kids about you, you know. You were their favorite bedtime story when they were little. Especially my oldest, he’s named after you so, I hope you don’t mind. He reminds me so much of you.” Tony laughs and hugs the kid close to his chest again.  
“Of course, I don’t mind. I’m honored,” he pauses for a moment before saying the words that he had wanted to say so badly in those final moments but couldn’t. “I’m so sorry I left you, Peter. I am so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mr.—I mean, Tony. I understand, I never blamed you.”

Peter goes off to talk to the rest of their friends eventually and Tony stands next to Pepper, placing a hand on her shoulder. Everything is okay, he realizes suddenly, he’s okay, Pepper and Peter are okay, his family… They’re all okay.

“Are you okay?” Pepper asks, taking his hand gently. He nods,

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m really good.” Pepper smiles up at him and he feels a surge of appreciation for whatever god put this whole program together.  
After a while, the sliding doors out to the patio open and the bright white light from outside seems to beckon them though. Their friends murmur, unsure of what to do next. 

“What’s going on?” Peter asks, shielding his eyes.

“It’s time to go,” Vision says, taking Wanda’s hand.

“Go where?” Bruce says, blinking rapidly, still unsure about the whole process.

No one answers because no one really knows, not even Vision is sure. With Bruce’s question still hanging in the air, the team moves through the door until its just Pepper, Tony and Peter left in the compound.

“I’ll see you there, right, Tony? Wherever we’re going.”

“Yeah, kid, you will.” Together they step through the doorway and Tony lets go.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
